


For The Time Being

by bigblueboxat221b



Series: How Does Your Marriage Work? [11]
Category: Come From Away - Sankoff & Hein
Genre: Awkward Conversations, Don't copy to another site, Drunken Shenanigans, F/M, Forgetfulness, In Gander, Post-Screech In (Come From Away), falling asleep together
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-21
Updated: 2019-08-21
Packaged: 2020-09-23 04:30:52
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,820
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20334109
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/bigblueboxat221b/pseuds/bigblueboxat221b
Summary: People have assumed they're married since they've arrived. But the night after the screech in at the Legion, and people are saying even stranger things. They really do need to figure out what happened in the rest of that night...





	For The Time Being

**Author's Note:**

> Disclaimer: This is not RPF  
While Nick and Diane in the musical are based on real people, this story is set strictly in the fictional representation of them in the musical, ‘Come From Away’. I haven’t done any research into their personal lives, and anything further than what is canon in the musical is completely made up, with the exception of some geographical details. This is not intended to represent the real life couple in any way, their thoughts, attitudes or actions. It’s just my brain saying, ‘what if?’, as it does to every story that resonates with me.

Diane groaned, the light somehow harsher that morning than it usually was. She tried to raise one hand to her head but found it was entangled with another set of fingers.

“Nick?” she said sleepily.

They weren’t lying down properly; as she struggled to sit up, she could see they’d both ended up sleeping on a couch in one of the rooms of their shelter. She’d been curled over the back of it, mirroring Nick, their hands joined in between. Someone had thrown a large blanket over them both to combat the cool of the night, but it was well and truly morning now. A lot of people were moving past them, and there seemed to be a disproportionately large number of people smiling fondly at the pair of them.

“Nick!” Diane said, her eyes still on the people walking back and forth. She reached over to shake Nick’s shoulder, needing him to wake up. There were definitely pieces missing from the previous night, and maybe he could fill some in for her.

“Diane?” Nick’s voice finally came, though it was rougher than she’d heard.

“What happened last night?” Diane asked. She waited with less patience than she felt as he woke, realising where they were, sitting up as she had.

“The Legion,” he said. He frowned. “I don’t…I think there are some things missing.”

“I remember the Legion,” Diane agreed. She tried to think, but her brain was pointing out that she and Nick were still holding hands. That didn’t seem to be their usual arrangement, though neither was pulling away from it, and it was nice, feeling his skin beside hers.

“I kissed a fish!” Diane said triumphantly, pulling sections of memory together.

Nick snorted. “No, you didn’t.”

“Yes I did!” Diane replied. She remembered the fish waving in her face, the feel of something against her lips. Although…

“No,” Nick said, “you really didn’t.”

“I remember,” Diane said, “he told me I had to kiss the fish!”

Nick looked at her in exasperation. “And you refused.”

“No!” Diane said, though her brow was creased as she chased the memory. “I kissed the fish.” She felt less certain, now.

“No,” Nick retorted immediately, “you kissed the Englishman.”

Diane blinked at him. “I what?”

“You kissed me,” Nick said, colour rising in his cheeks.

She looked at him, the memory coming back as he prompted her. “I kissed you.”

He nodded, eyes apprehensive as he watched her process the new memory.

She smiled. “Did you kiss me back?”

He shook his head, a smile growing to match hers. “Not yet.”

As she watched, resolution solidified in his eyes and he ducked closer. She leaned in too, and they kissed again, melting into each other, the cushion soft behind them. She couldn’t believe it; whatever had happened last night seemed to have given Nick more self-confidence, and she was all for it. Maybe her kissing him had done it, a dim part of her brain pointed out as the rest was still focussing on Nick, kissing her on this couch right her.

“Good morning, lovebirds!”

Someone called out to them and their kiss broke to the sound of good-natured laughter. Diane looked at Nick and they smiled at each other, the kind of private smile she hadn’t shared with someone in a long time. The kind of smile she’d been hoping she and Nick might be sharing before they left Gander.

“Not married, huh?” A woman Diane recognises leans in, speaking in a stage whisper complete with wink before she continued on her way.

Diane smiled at her to be polite, then turned to Nick. “I have no idea what that was about,” she said. “Have people been…I mean, I’ve had quite a few people assuming we’re married. Has that happened to you, too?”

“Yes,” Nick said, staring after the woman. “There have been some.”

“Well, at least now they have an actual reason to think so,” Diane said, returning the smile of a man walking past. Nick kissed her again, and she allowed warmth to flow through her.

“Breakfast?” Nick asked when they finally separated again.

“Coffee,” Diane replied. “And breakfast,” she added.

“Excellent plan,” Nick told her. They folded the blanket and linked hands before heading for the cafeteria.

“Just a minute,” Diane said, changing direction to the ladies. When she was done, washing her hands, a woman she didn’t recognise smiled at her in the mirror.

“Have a good time last night?” the woman said.

“Yes,” Diane replied.

“Not a night you’ll easily forget!” the woman said cheerily.

“No,” Diane answered her, though she frowned when the woman left. What exactly did that mean? She did have some gaps in her memory. She really did need to see if Nick remembered more than she.

Nick was waiting for her outside the bathrooms, and he had a similar puzzled expression as she’d seen on herself in the mirror.

“What?”

“I had the oddest conversation,” Nick said. He took her hand, still looking confused. “Someone I don’t know just asked if my wife,” he glanced at her, “was enjoying her time in Gander.” He put particular emphasis on ‘my wife’, Diane noticed.

“That is odd,” she told him. “I had something similar.” She told him about her conversation as they walked to the cafeteria. “What do you think they mean?”

“Well,” Nick said as they poured coffee, “Do you remember everything from last night?”

“No,” Diane admitted. “There are some gaps.”

“Me too,” Nick said. “I remember you kissing me, but after that it gets quite indistinct.”

“Maybe something happened after the fish?” Diane asked. Her face heated and she leaned in, speaking quietly. “Maybe we…left together?”

Nick’s eyebrows rose and the flush flowed through his cheeks again. “Er, possibly,” he stammered.

“No,” Diane said, seeing his discomfort, “I don’t mean…I just mean people might think we did, even if we…didn’t.”

She groaned at her own awkwardness, but from the stricken look on Nick’s face, he didn’t want to have a conversation about what their drunken escapades may or may not have comprised either.

He cleared his throat. “Well. That might explain the comments.”

Diane grinned at him. “Well, unless we can find someone who was with us for the whole night, we probably won’t know. So let’s just…ignore it?”

“An excellent plan,” Nick said with obvious relief in his voice.

“No breakfast?” One of the local women who was overseeing breakfast had bustled up to their table with a beaming smile. “Surely you need something to eat this morning!” She folded her hands and looked at them both. “Anything you like, go on. Can’t start the rest of your life together without anything in your bellies!”

Diane felt her mouth drop open. What on earth was this woman talking about? Before she could speak, Nick was saying something, and she nodded when the woman looked to her, trusting Nick. As soon as their host took herself off, presumably to make whatever Nick had ordered, Diane turned her face to Nick, hoping he could read the ‘what the heck was that?’ on her face.

“I told her we wanted toutons,” he told her. He leaned in, covering her hand with his. “I have no idea what she was talking about.”

“’The rest of our life together?’” Diane repeated. “What does that even mean?”

Nick shrugged. “Something must have happened last night. Maybe,” his face coloured but he continued, “maybe instead of leaving we stayed at the Legion. Someone must have helped us back here,” he pointed out. “If we couldn’t remember last night, I doubt we could have got ourselves back here.”

“And there was a blanket over us,” Diane remembered.

Their recollections were interrupted by their host bearing a large plate of toutons. “There you go!” she said brightly.

“Thank you,” Diane said, and they waited until she was gone before resuming their conversation. “So if we stayed at the Legion, and ended up on the couch like that, perhaps it’s just teasing. You know, because we’ve been so adamant that we’re not married.”

“But now it’s…a little more difficult to deny,” Nick finished for her.

“Yes,” she said. His eyes really were the most remarkable shade of blue. She could study them for days.

“So nothing to worried about, you think?” Nick asked.

“Oh, I’m sure,” Diane said with confidence she did not feel. From the slightly amused look he shot at her as he dove into the toutons, he saw right through it. Somehow, that made her feel better.

+++

“Okay, we need to get to the bottom of this!” Diane burst out.

Nick’s fingers curled in on hers. “I think you’re right,” he said. They’d been out walking today, stopping for lunch and an afternoon coffee, and there had been a constant stream of smiles and vague comments about wishing them well, about being happy something positive had come out of these circumstances. The comment that had pushed Diane over the edge was something about ‘accepting fate’s plan’, and now she and Nick were standing in the street, frustration coursing through her veins.

“There!” Diane blurted, pointing across the street at Tim Horton’s. It was the man who’d hosted the ceremony last night. “Isn’t he the mayor?” Nick asked. “I think his name’s Claude.”

“So?” Diane asked. She was dragging Nick across the road, determined to speak to him. “We’ve gotta ask him what happened after that fish thing.”

When she stepped into Tim Horton’s, the round of applause was less surprising that it would have been if she’d not had the first half of the day with increasingly strange reactions to her presence.

“Hey!” The mayor obviously recognised them, because he beckoned them over to sit at his table. “Good to see you two today!” He grinned at them. “How’re you feeling?”

“Confused,” Diane told him. She and Nick sat opposite the mayor, and she looked at him determinedly. “We have some questions about last night.”

“Okay,” Claude said, sitting back. “Shoot.”

Diane shot a look at Nick before she asked, “We remember the…fish ceremony?”

“The screech in,” Claude supplied. “You’re Newfoundlanders now.”

“Yes, we are,” Diane said. “Although, I didn’t kiss the fish, are you sure…”

“Well, I made you a deal, and you did kiss the Englishman,” Claude told her, smiling indulgently. “So I guess it’s not the only thing that’ll stick from last night.”

Diane made a noise of frustration. “That’s the kind of thing we’re talking about,” she told him. Leaning forward, she said, “What else happened last night?”

“What else?” Claude asked, looking surprised.

“We don’t remember anything after the…screech in,” Diane told him. “And people have been making the strangest comments all day.”

She looked at him, and could feel Nick doing the same. His hand stole into hers under the table; she squeezed his fingers, but didn’t take her eyes off Claude. He was suddenly looking quite ill at ease and it made her heart thrum to see it.

“You don’t…nothing?” Claude checked, looking at them both. “Hmmm, right, that’s a bit of a snarly one.”

“What is?” Diane asked.

“Well, after the screech in you and Mister Englishman over here spent a couple of hours wrapped around each other like a pair of teenagers,” Claude told them. Diane felt her face flush, and Nick’s fingers squeezed her under the table. Claude continued, “So when someone suggested you should get married and get it over with, you were both very enthusiastic.”

“We were?” Diane said faintly. She could see where this was going.

“And I’m a notary public,” Claude said, “and we already had the party going, so,” he shrugged.

“So you married us?” Diane said.

“I married you,” Claude confirmed.

“But I don’t remember it!” Diane said to him. “Neither of us remembers it!”

“Yeah,” Claude said, scratching his chin. “That happens.”

“That happens?” Diane repeated. She was in shock.

Nick said something, and then Diane was being pulled up, waiting while he and Claude spoke for a moment before he was leading her out of the restaurant.

“That happens?” she repeated to Nick. He stopped, sitting them down on a bench beside the Tim Horton’s building.

“I’m sure it’s not legally binding,” Nick said.

“He sure sounded like it might be,” Diane shot back.

Nick sat quietly for a moment, stroking the back of her hand as she breathed deeply and deliberately. “I’m sure we could have it annulled,” he said. “I’d be surprised if there wasn’t a waiting period on marriage licences, actually.”

“There isn’t in Las Vegas,” Diane shot back.

“This is hardly Las Vegas,” Nick protested.

“I know,” Diane said, the fire going out of her argument immediately. “Oh my God, Nick, did we get married?”

“I think we did,” he replied.

Another few moments of silence as Diane tried to wrap her brain around this development. How would it even work? Nick lived in London – his whole life was there, and she was settled in Dallas. There was long distance and there was long, _long_ distance, she thought to herself. The very idea was upsetting, and not just because they were apparently married. Nick would always have been going back to London, and she couldn’t bear the idea of leaving Dallas, so this separation would have always happened regardless of whether they’d tied the knot last night or not.

“What are we going to do?” Diane asked.

“I don’t know,” Nick replied. “I mean, there are only so many options, I suppose.”

Diane turned to him. “Okay,” she said. “Lay them out for me.” It felt better to be making decisions, or at least eliminating options. It felt like doing something, when they’d been so damned helpless for so many days, waiting here while the FAA and Mother Nature decided on their travel plans for them.

“Well,” Nick said, blinking as he arranged his thoughts, “as far as I can see there are three options.” He cleared his throat and listed them. “We could have the marriage annulled.” Diane nodded. “We could not have it annulled, and live as a married couple. Somewhere.” Diane nodded, trying to keep her expression neutral. “Or, we could more or less ignore that it happened and continue our lives.”

“As though it never happened,” Diane said.

“Yes,” Nick replied.

She considered the options for a few moments. “Well I suppose before we made a decision about the marriage we need to think about what we might want to do after this is all over.”

Nick nodded. “I don’t know if you’ve thought about it,” he said, and the hesitance in his voice made her heart pound in her chest.

“I…don’t know,” Diane said. “It’s complicated.”

“It can be,” Nick said. “Depending on how you look at it.”

“I’d like to call you when I get home,” Nick said. “See how things might go, if I’m based in London.” Diane nodded. It was a strange way to say ‘long distance relationship’, but she understood what he was saying. Who knew how long things would last? Especially with a vast ocean between them.

“My company does have an office in Dallas,” Nick continued. “So that could be an option.”

“They do?” Diane asked. What would the option be, exactly?

“They were hosting the conference,” Nick explained.

“Oh,” Diane replied. Was he offering to move? Or just pointing out that it could be a possibility in the future? Was he really willing to do that?

“I think it might be as simple as, ‘what do we want?’” Nick said quietly.

“The simplest answer?” Diane asked.

“The simplest answer,” Nick agreed.

She sat for a moment, considering how to phrase it, before abandoning her carefully planned words and just saying it. “I think I want to be with you,” she said. “I don’t know if an ocean between us will…be bearable.”

She winced at the awkward sounding words, but at least they were honest. She had no idea how she’d feel in a week or a month – assuming they were out of her by then – but the idea of Nick being so far away was uncomfortable, to say the least.

“Me too,” Nick agreed, and they both turned, meeting in the middle to kiss.

“So what does that mean?” Diane asked. “Are we married?”

“I think we might be,” Nick replied. “For the time being, at least.”

“Okay, then,” Diane said. Her heart was racing, but it was happiness driving the tempo rather than the low level of anxiety driving her moods lately. They’d take it one day at a time, then. But for the meantime – they were married. She felt a curl of happiness in her belly and turned to Nick. The same happiness was in his eyes, and she smiled at him. She could be happy right now, and whatever else happened, they could decide together.


End file.
